The Poetry of Business

Business and Poetry at first glance have little in common. Most people consider business as
representative of the rational side of our society. Business is involved with profit and
concrete ways of achieving it. Poetry represents the creative, more abstract side of the world.
It deals with ideas and emotions, not the bottom line. Yet, on closer inspection, many areas of
overlap actually exist.

For starters, there is a fair amount of poetry about business. Poems about business range from
the whimsical -- one Ogden Nash verse
contemplating work begins

I sit in an office at 244 Madison Avenue
And say to myself You have a responsible job havenue?
Why then do you fritter away your time on this doggerel?

Here are some other famous and not so famous verses about business:

Carl Sandburg in his Chicago Collection
addresses all aspects of Chicago life, including its business life. Skyscraper discusses
what transpires in the daily life of a skyscraper; To Certain Journeymen is about the
business of dying; and Working Girls muses on the flow of life.

Frank Halliwell in The
Customer provides a tongue-in-cheek commentary on being put on hold.

Michael Benedikt writes what he calls "Prose
Poems" that describe many aspects of the business of life.

Clearly, poetry about business covers all of history and all types of styles, but the common
denominator is that it comments on this experience we call business. Uncovering the few
examples I have cited here has been inspiring and fun, so much so that I have started a page
that links to any poetry that relates to business. This should be a useful, ever-growing
reference page of poetry about business.

Poetry In Business

Entrepreneurism has much in common with poetry according to Tom Ehrenfield ("Poetry &
Business"). His premise is that "entrepreneurs, like poets, invent new ways to connect people,
ideas, and organizations." He makes the case that entrepreneurs and poets take the same
intuitive leap, creating meaning where it didn't exist before -- then communicate it to their
audience. The common denominator is coming up with an idea and making it real. Simply put,
starting a business is the business equivalent of writing a poem.

However, even in established businesses many managers and leaders find their business
inspiration in poetry. Many business leaders write poetry as part of daily journaling or simply
to help center themselves as they sort through their business challenges.

A growing movement in business is the desire to inspire greater creativity in organizational
life by overcoming habitual fear and reticence of expressing oneself through nurturing a sense
of "soul" within the office. "Soul" is developed using poetry and story telling as a way to
express deeper emotions. The goal is to provide new ways to look at life in business and to
finding greater satisfaction in one's work.

Poems are commonly found in mottoes, slogans, and even mission statements for businesses today.
And a whole, new profession of business poets has emerged. These poets provide inspirational
verses, poetry-driven motivational programs and professional development using poetry.

Poetry is also used as a way to improve business writing. Rules of good poetry writing are as
applicable to good business prose as verse. Good writing comes from a combination of good
content, clarity (being concise and organized), and style. There are many jokes about
"business-speak" -- expressing simple statements in complicated, convoluted ways. Simply
reading aloud what has been written can be tremendously effective in reworking business prose
so that it flows and communicates accurately in an understandable fashion. Here is an example
of a bloated, wordy sentence one might find in a business report -- "Over the past quarter our
company has taken action on the issue of service calls and has initiated advanced planning in
the area of complaints. Compare that to the simpler, more direct -- "During the last quarter
our company has focused on service calls by developing new complaint follow-up procedures."
Listen for the flow. It can make all the difference in the world in both employees and
customers understanding of the business' message.

This brings us to the most common type of poetry found in business -- advertising. Advertising
is how a business attempts to get its message out to the public -- and some of the most
effective advertising is poetry. One of the premier uses of poetry in advertising was the Burma
Shave ads found along highways for many, many years. For those of you who have grown up with
freeways, the Burma Shave signs were found along highways around the country. Each sign would
have one line of the poem. Families driving cross-country would watch for them avidly and read
them aloud, laughing at the cleverness. One example:

Dinah Doesn't
Treat Him Right
But If He'd
Shave
Dyna-mite!
Burma-Shave

Maybe not great poetry, but a nostalgic era in advertising that may be returning. They were the
pioneers of poetry in ads -- almost a necessary part of advertising today.

So, maybe poetry is a more integral part of business than one would guess. With that in mind,
here is my contribution:

Business and Poetry
Poetry and Business
Perhaps That is the Real Answer
To Business Success!